Improvement in harvesters



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Letters Patent No. 73,914, dated January 28, 1868.

IMPROVEMET IN HARVESTERS.

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To ALL wHoM rr MAY ooNoERN;

Be it known that I, C. MOUL, of Hanover, in the county of York, and State of Pennsylvania, have mvented a new and improved Extensible Shaft for Reaping and blowing-Machines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being-had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this speciication, in which- Figure l is a sectional view of portions of aharvesting-machin'e, showing one mode of applying my extensible shaft.

Figure 2 is an enlarged longitudinal section through the extensible shaft, contracted in its shortest compass.

Figure 3 is a similar view of the shaft fully extended.

Figure 4 is an enlarged cross-section through the three sections of the extensible shaft.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to an improvement on extensible shafts, which are particularly designed for harvestingmachines which have their platforms hinged to their draught-frames, the shafts being used for communicating motion to the sickles, the rakes, or reels from driving-machinery on the main frames, and preventing, by their extensibility, the parts from .binding and working hard. Hitherto, extensible shafts for the above-mentioned purpose, have been made of two sections, one sliding in and out of the other, which for some purposes are objectionable, as the required length of movcmentof the parts connected together ca nnot be obtained.

The nature of my invention consists in a novel manner of constructing an 'extensible shaft for a harvester, of three or more sections, the three sections being tted together one within another, and strengthened and guided by tongues and grooves formed on and in the sections, as will he hereinafter described.V

i By my invention I am enabled to obtain a more compact contrivance when the same is fully contracted, than is the case whenthe shaft is made of only two sections, and the same fully contracted; for instance, if one of my shafts is maderof three sections, cach three feet long, and one of the ordinary shafts made of two sections, each four and a half feet long, it is obvious that in mine the lengthof the shaft can be reduced, by sliding one section within another, to about three feet, whereas, in the case of the ordinary shaft, the len'gth of the shaft can only be reduced, by sliding one section in the other, to about four and a half feet. The object-or benefit secured by providing for reducing the length of a shaft from nine fees to three feet, is this; in the use of the shaftwith two sections, I suffered considerable loss from the following cause: in operating the harvestingl machine in the eld,'the shaft with but two sections was too long, when fully contracted, to allow the hinged plat-- form to come up close enough to the machine or draught-frame, and consequently the gearing would be broken lby too great strain; but by adopting a three-part shaft, of the same length, when expanded, as the two-part shaft, this difficulty was fully obviatcd. Again, with a shaft ina-de of three sections, each four and a half feet long, a much greater sweep can be obtained than with a'shaft of two sections, each four and a halt` feet long, while at vthe same time the parts of the shaft first named can be as compactly contracted or folded within one another as is the case with the two-part shaft. A long sweep or extension I often have found necessary, for the reason that in some places the two-part shaft, say of nine feet in length when extended, was too short for the movernent of the platform on its hinge-joint, and the result was that the. sections would unship and the rake stop itscperation, and often the disconnected part would become entangled with nthe wheel or traveller, and get broken. And nally, to combine both short contraction and long extension in one and the same shaft, is

the thing necessary, and by Iny arrangement of a series of short sections, this end has been attained, for by making a shaft twelve feet in length, out of four sections of three feet each, it is obvious that a much longer extension and a much shorter contraction than is possible with a shaft of nine feet in length, inade of but two sections, each of which is four and a half .feet long.

To enable others skilled in thc art to understand my invention, I will describe its construction and operation; In the accompanying drawings, A represents one section of the extensible shaft, which is constructed hollow, and provided with cars upon it, by which it can be coupled to a driving or a driven shaft. B represents another hollow section of the extensible shaft, which is constructed to slide freely but not loosely Within the largest section A, and to receive within it a third section, C, which latter maybe made solid, and provided with coupling-ears, a, upon its exposed end. I thus have three telescopic sections, which. may be contracted'into the short compass shown in fig. 2, o r extended, as shown in g. 3. In cross-section, the three sections, A, B, and C, are rectangular, but they may be made of any other shape which will prevent these from rotating one within another. In order to prevent these sections from being separated by extending them, I forni a shoulder orsstop, d, upon the inner end of the section B, and a shoulder or stop, d', upon the inner end of the section C, which shoulders are tted into longitudinal grooves formed in the sections A B, as shown in figs. f? and 3. The shoul der d will abut against a stop, c, on the end of the section A, and prevent section B from being drawn entirely out of A, and the shoulder d' will abut against a stop, c', onV section B, and' prevent section Cfrom being entirely drawn out of the section B. The grooves ef, in the hollow sections, may be made as shown in figs. 3 and 4, by forming oli'sets on seid sections, thus allowing the sections-to be fitted snugly together, and providing channels or grooves for the shoulders to work in, without materially increasing thesize of the sections laterally.

Iam aware Athat telescopic or extensible shafts, each compos'ed'lof two sections only, have-been' heretofore employed as connecting-shafts in harvesters having hinged platforms, or' hinged finger-bars without platformattachments, and therefore I do not claim such shaft as my invention. v

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A shaft rfor connecting the driving-power of-a harvester with a rake or reel or other device applied upon a hinged finger-beam or platform, and to be driven, whensuch shaft is 'constructedof three or more than two longitudinelly-adjustable telescopic sections; and such sections fitted together by tonguesrand grooves, and shoulders and stops, all substantially as and for.v the purpose described.

' C. MOUL.

`Witnesses: I

GEORGE ROLLER, A. M. HERSEHY. 

